Year: 2019
Project(s):
Relevance
The U.S. Gulf of Mexico red snapper fishery stock assessment is hindered by a lack of robust data, especially at structured habitat areas. To address this need, a $12.5 million research program, unprecedented in scale, was launched, and Congress made available $10 million in funding for a 2-year research project designed to independently estimate Gulf red snapper abundance using best available technologies.
Response
A team of 21 leading scientists from 12 institutions across the Gulf and beyond assembled to design and implement a large-scale population survey, to independently estimate the abundance of age-2+ red snapper in the northern Gulf across 3 habitat types, 3 depth zones and 5 regions on the continental shelf.
Results
A suite of methods, including habitat classification, direct visual counts, depletion surveys, and a high-reward tagging study, are being used across the entire U.S. Gulf of Mexico. An operating model was also developed to analyze incoming data and develop the final Gulf-wide abundance estimate. The final estimate will be used for comparison and integration into the NOAA red snapper stock assessment.
Recap
Unique sampling design was developed to estimate red snapper population abundance across a large geographic area and parts of the design is being incorporated in a similar red snapper study being conducted in the Southeast region. (2019)